Has anyone been in touch with Rita lately?
Couple of pups off the Mutha AeAe.
Tropical Plants And Gardens #129
Pups are lookin great Drew. Maybe if you keep them both in one pot, they won't get quite as huge as Mama did?
Wonder if Rita found a new house, and has been embroiled in moving, and planting a whole new botanical garden . . either that or she retired to Belize?
That a Begonia E.?
Yep, my massive B. Odorata alba that Alice sent me as a small cutting a year ago. You can smell it 50ft. away in the mornings.
Hm, it makes a plant that's almost big enough to appeal to you, Drew. Want a start?
Would love one, but, may end up with a divorce with another "large" plant. Thanks for the offer though. Verrrry nice plant. House was full, garage was full. Glad we 'll pay this house off next year. Hopefully, I can work on obtaining a couple of acres of land and a few greenhouses to place on them.
Hm, better get your land close by or your wife will never see you.
Couple of acres? A few greenhouses? Can we help you choose the name for your new nursery business?? "Drew's Tropical Giants?" comes to mind.
Here are a couple of mundane pictures of my groundcover jasmine 'Tricolor'. This is a big success for me, that I've been waiting on for 2 years, it has finally taken hold and is covering nicely. I just love the colors it makes. New foliage is pink or white, and the green comes in to the leaves later, making them variegated.
Red pentas are finally coming on strong, after a major setback in March with the cold weather. They were looking pretty scrappy!
Drew, begonias are easy, you just leave the mom plant outside and bring a small cutting or two indoors for the winter. They, especially the odorata grow quickly.
We are having an epic amount of oak pollen. The pine pollen started in January and is long gone, this stuff is terrible. The allergists are saying that normally it is so fine it blows away but not this year. The dead flowers are dropping in unusually high numbers also. We blow and wash the drive and walks several times a day. This is just one hours worth of mess.
.....and something pretty to make up for the ugly.
My sympathies, Alice. Been there, done that a couple of weeks ago. Had to clean the gutters out twice! No worries, weather front headed your way should whip the last of those pesky oak flowers away.
Just think how they fertilize the oak trees for the rest of the year, right?
I am afraid we will have acorns 2' deep this year and then there will be gazillions of those oak seedlings. LOL We are under a severe storm watch this afternoon but I suspect it will go to the west of us, the storms usually skip around the sea islands.
beautiful, even tho you might not like the stuff getting on everything , it ends up being a good thing afterall, right?
Hope the weather did miss you, Alice. I was up at an ungodly hour this morning just as it was getting light, wrangling wrens! A pair of Carolina wrens got themselves trapped inside the pool cage, (there's a hole I need to fix). I was awakened by their indignant chirping, as they flitted around trying to get out. They overturned a couple of my orchids in the process, but luckily no harm done. I propped the doors open, then sort of 'herded' them in the right direction.
As I was bumbling around, discovered my agapanthus just opening nicely. Couple of new orchids opened while we were out sailing yesterday, too.
beautiful, Elaine.
I love the last orchid, Elaine. What is it?
Encyclia Green Hornet. It's a real winner, Paula. Blooms nearly constantly and it's fragrant, too!
Very pretty!!
Same activity with the Oaks up here Alice. Don't think I've ever seen it this bad!
Isn't it strange? The ER here says they are overflowing with people with breathing difficulties and the health dept. says the pollen level was at critical stage. We never got the serious rain we were supposed to have but we had a little and enough wind to bring down a lot more of those spent oak flowers, actually I think I am seeing the end. Since the pine pollen started in January this year, it has been a long, rough spring.
Elaine, your orchids are always so beautiful and you have the perfect climate and jungle-like setting for them.
You can say that again, Alice. You really would all laugh if you saw my garden, it IS a jungle. Usually sort of under control at this time of year, but by mid-summer you need a machete and a guide to walk through most of it.
I know you've all seen these before, but I just can't resist a picture when Passiflora quadrangularis is blooming! It got confused and bloomed when the weather was so warm in Jan. & Feb. but I'm hoping now there might actually be some pollenators around.
Easy Does It landscape roses are blooming out front. A late amaryllis was a nice surprise, and my wild stripey Cannas are starting to put up their fabulous leaves.
LOL, I meant jungle in a good way, the Sarasota area is blessed with the climate to grow all sorts of jungle like plants. Of course, if the strange weather patterns keep up I'll be in the same position. My little variegated syngonium never took a hit this past winter, it ought to grow like crazy this year. I am hoping to get some flowers on the orchid cactus I planted at the base of a tree (at your suggestion ) last year. Right now it is tied up but hopefully it will take off and attach itself to the tree this summer. It handled the limited cold like a trooper.
The bottlebrush is doing its thing right now.
J. Maple Villa Taranto, I love the flowers on this one.
Here's my clivia 'Camaron Peach'- first bloom ever. I used to grow the orange and yellow ones in SoCal, so I thought I'd try them in north TX. I bought the plant about 5 years ago, and it took forever to bloom- but I love this shade of pastel peachy-apricot, with little blushes of pink on some of the petals. Sorry it's sideways, still as pretty!
This message was edited Apr 24, 2013 4:29 PM
That is pretty. My yellow Clivia is just about to open - orange Clivias are almost done blooming.
Oo, that is a lovely color on your clivia. I've had at least 4 clivias, 2 yellow, 2 orange, given to me as gifts, and they've all petered out and disappeared except this one. It's showing no sign of a flower, but it does have 5 fans of leaves. Think I'm going to put it under scrutiny in the pool cage under an overhang so I can deprive it of water for a little while.
Got some brugs blooming, Phaius microburst, and the callas are finally giving up some flowers.
One of my bargain orchids made a nice centerpiece for dinner last night.
Now for something completely different! The Wormkiller! Synandrospadix vermitoxicum is blooming again. I thought for sure I'd killed it, and only had the one baby plant left (in the little pot in the pic). But no, here she is! Last time I had one bloom, it self-pollenated, and self-sowed, too. Such a cool plant. Think I'll leave it to its own devices from now on.
There's an awful lot of ominous silence going on here, is everybody ok?? I hope you're all just busy gardening!
Yep - busy in the yard. I already posted everything I have blooming. My sandpaper vine is blooming now, though. The Amorphophallus are done blooming - only lasted a couple of days.
I almost threw my worm killer out. It was in a pot and completely dormant. I was dumping what I thought were pots of just soil and all of a sudden this big bulb fell out of one. I replanted it and it is already sending up shoots. It is a very forgiving plant.
Must admit, I don't see the point with the Amorphophallus, they stink when they are in bloom, and only last a day or two, then make this huge foliage plant. What's the attraction here?
I've got pinstripe ginger, a start from Rita, or maybe Cassie? It has finally come into its own, and is blooming. Still in a big pot, but I think I have the spot in mind for it.
Re: Amorphophallus - I guess it's just to be able to say 'ya, I've got that'.
I am so old I had it back in the late 80's. One smell and that was it. LOL
Elaine, baby worm killer from you is just now peeking up out of the soil. I wish it would get a move on !!!!!!!!!!
Give it a little dilute fert, Mj, and jump back! Mine went from "just peeking" to a foot tall with a flower in about 10 days.
Love your orchid photos, btw. The one with the kitty guarding the greenhouse is great! I've been posting all my orchid photos on ATP for a while now, but lurk the Orchids forum here.
Here are some blooms in my yard today:
Here's some more:
And a few more:
Just a few more:
Nice Monstera Kay!!!
Where, where? Oh yeah, mixed in with the beautiful variegated brug, right? I missed it on the first viewing.
Fabulous array, Kay. Yellow clivia, I home mine blooms some day . . .
Thanks for the kind words! That Monstera varigata was last year's birthday present from Debra - thanks, my Friend!
Looks like this Front in the Southeast has gone stationary over us in the Charlotte area... We have over an inch and a half as I type.
First time for both Trachycarpus fortunei to flower simultaneously!
